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25 Years Ago
in the Free Venice Beachhead
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From magazines in the
old days
Destiny's Consent by
Laura Shepard
Townsend
Tales of the Blue Meanie by Allan Cole
New Year's with Santana from Tales of the Blue Meanie by Allan Cole
The Spectre
Venice, California
No. 2, Spring 1962, 25¢
In this issue:
Editorial
Money - Justice
Bulletin
Roust Information Card
Crimes Without a Victim
Something Else
Red, Dead, etc.
Concerning Marijuana - Part II
Editorial
As we begin, like it or not, the year 1962, we can do little but grit our teeth and hope that this year will be at least no worse than the last. The big war hasn't come yet, but internal struggle seems to be increasing throughout the world and with it the danger that some "great power" will touch off a nuclear war rather than face up to its problems at home and abroad.
The best hope our own government offers is futile fallout shelters and the macabre consolation that as millions of Americans die a variety of grisly deaths, more millions of foreigners will be suffering the same fate. We keep our economy going by making more expensive weapons and channeling surplus workers into the armed forces, while we delude ourselves into believing that we are strengthening our economic position by cracking down on welfare programs at home and by throttling trade with foreign countries whose governments dare to practice state capitalism instead of our own state-supported brand.
Many of our churches still rant against "godless materialism," although the ones that do are usually the least in material need. They condemn hatred in others when they might do a real service by trying to eliminate hatred in their own congregations. Our educators are being pressured by know-nothings to deify the American way of life (whatever that is) and not to teach "one-worldism" when the only hope for peace is one world under international law based on reciprocal understanding, humility, respect and cooperation
It is unlikely that world and local leaders will give any better example this year than last. We may expect them to continue to be models of fear, suspicion, deception, hypocrisy, petulance and pettiness. Obstinacy and intolerance will keep determining national and local policy. Refugees will keep pouring from everywhere to everywhere else. Prisons everywhere will get more crowded and the proportion of political prisoners will increase.
Our one hope in 1962 is that the dissent expressed in 1961 will grow and become more general. Our inspiration has been coming more and more from obscure individuals willing to endure humiliation, hardship and danger for the sake of principles which their leaders are too busy discussing to have time left for putting into practice. Today's heroes are seldom officials; they are usually private persona and often young: the freedom riders, the peace marchers, student demonstrators, protesters against violations of civil liberties, dissenters against mindless conformity, legalized injustice, official ignorance and organized brutality. May these anonymous heroes increase in number this year until even our "leaders" will feel obliged to recognize their example.
This may be a slim hope, but it looks like our only one. Will you help?
(The paragraph on the lower right of the page says......)
In Venice, visit: The Venice West Cafe, 7 Dudley Avenue (open 6 p.m. until dawn, Roman cooking 7 to 10 p.m., poetry readings on weekend evenings): THE VENICE FORUM, 5 Dudley Avenue (meets Wednesdays, 9 p.m.); The Gas House, 1501 Ocean Front Walk (Tel. EXbrook 9-9002); NICO van den Heuvel, 2807 Pacific Avenue, Tel. EXbrook 9-2891 (paintings, murals, art instruction; appointment by telephone).
The Spectre was founded in the summer of 1961
by me, Bruce Boyd, John Haag, Worth Belgarde, and a few other people.
I wrote the first editorial, a sort of wishy-washy apolitical statement
with an anti-war message. It was a two-page handout. I forget what else
it contained. If memory serves it was created by the Venice Forum, a group
of local denizens of Venice bohemia, who meet weekly at John Kenevan's
studio at #5 Dudley, Later that summer we voted John Haag as its first
editor. Issue #2 was entirely his doing. I don't think there was ever
another issue.
.......................Vaughn Marlowe